Duchman Family Winery (Hill Country)

[00:00:06] Howdy Vine Trippers. I wanted to take just a moment to talk to you about the Texas wine lover website and their phone app for both iPhone as well as Google devices. You can actually

[00:00:17] download this app, put it on your phone or just go to the website if you're not an app person. And if you ever want to go visit some of these great locations that we've been

[00:00:25] talking about in the podcast, this will give you a great information about the place before you go and you'll be able to find other wineries in the area. So if you want to make a day of it, go see several other places as well. You can search by

[00:00:38] region, you can sort the listings, find one that are kid friendly, family friendly, even ones that host RVs, all kinds of different sortable listings you can find there in that app and on the website. You can find other things as well in the

[00:00:51] area like restaurants, accommodations, maybe events that are going on at the different wineries. So it's your one-stop resource that goes hand in hand with this podcast to be able to find those great places to go visit. So check

[00:01:04] out the Texas Wine Lover website, it's txwinelover.com or go to their app. You can find it on the Google Play Store or the Apple Store as well. Enjoy your trips among the vines and use that app.

[00:01:53] You'll hear interviews, descriptions and details about each location that will excite you to visit and experience them for yourself. Ready to plan a wine tour? Use these episodes to choose the most interesting spots for you and your friends to check out.

[00:02:15] Most of all, enjoy hearing about the rapidly growing wine industry in the state and what makes our wines and wineries the best.

[00:02:36] Howdy fellow Vine Tripper. Welcome to episode 43 of Texas Under Vine. For today's episode I enjoyed a nice lovely little spring drive just outside of Austin to the little teeny town of Driftwood, Texas where I was able to go and visit

[00:02:52] Dukeman Family Winery. Now with this winery, if you had actually seen it on paper, you might think it's pronounced Dutchman. It's D-U-C-H-M-A-N, but it's actually pronounced Dukeman. It's named after the owners, Dr. Stan and Lisa Dukeman. They were medical doctors in the

[00:03:10] Houston area who also had some property there in Driftwood and they decided to open up the winery in 2005. They are wine enthusiasts who have a deep passion inside for providing food friendly wines. So they're going to make wines that are perfect for whatever you want to eat for your meal.

[00:03:27] Now, they also are huge fans of Italian varietals and Italian style things. So that's one of the things that Dukeman focuses on here. They have a lot of Italian varietals. They're not limited to only Italian, but they do have a heavy emphasis and are known for many of their Italian varietals.

[00:03:45] And their winemaker is named Dave Riley. He actually started in as a winemaker after a time in the construction industry. He planted a vineyard and then came on with Dukeman Family Winery, and he is now their full-time winemaker. And he was responsible actually for planting some of the vineyards that you're going to see on site when you go out there to Dukeman Family Winery.

[00:04:08] Now, those vines themselves have pretty much been abandoned over time in that they get 100% of all of their fruit now from the Texas High Plains area. They are 100% Texas, but they source that fruit out rather than using those vines that are on site.

[00:04:26] Now, the winery itself has, as I said, a very Italian aesthetic to it. So when you come up to it, you're going to feel like you've been transported into Tuscany. As you walk through the sidewalk through these beautiful live oaks out front and you see this almost like a villa kind of come into view covered in vines, very Italian feel, you're really going to think you were transported.

[00:04:50] And as a matter of fact, it's so picturesque, HGTV actually named it one of the most picturesque wineries and beautiful wineries in America. And as I said before, they're really famous for those Italian varietals. Now, Dave will tell you in the interview that it wasn't necessarily intentionally to focus on Italian varietals.

[00:05:08] That's just what they have done best with. They're widely known for their famous wines like their Vermintino, Senjuvese, Multiplugiano and Alianico.

[00:05:19] Now, another thing Dave is known for is his usage of neutral barrels on a lot of the wine. He really wants the wines and the varietals to speak for themselves and not be too clouded with oak influence on the wines.

[00:05:33] Now, they do spend a long time in oak. He's also known for his long barrel and bottle aging program on many of his wines. He'll share with you in the interview things like the Alianico can spend five years in both the barrel and the bottle before they're able to be released.

[00:05:51] And it's one of the things that gives them such as pristine flavor when you open up the bottle at your own home or at the winery itself.

[00:05:58] And the beauty of that long barrel and bottle aging program is that you know when you go to Dukeman and you buy a bottle there, it's going to be ready to go.

[00:06:07] They've done all the hard part in the aging for you so that you're going to be ready to drink it right then and there.

[00:06:13] Now, after I spent some time just admiring the gorgeous scenery of this winery, I was privileged to be able to go in and sit down with their award-winning winemaker Dave Riley.

[00:06:23] And I got to visit with him about some of his own history in winemaking and how he kind of got started there at Dukeman, some of his philosophy and thoughts on the way they make the varietals the way they do and what it's like to come to a tasting there at Dukeman.

[00:06:37] So without further ado, let's go hear from him. Well, I'm here with Dave Riley, the winemaker at Dukeman Family Winery. And so first off, Dave, tell me a little bit about yourself. How'd you get into the wine industry? I guess I got in the wine industry about 1999.

[00:07:00] I had a construction company at the time and was getting pretty interested in wine just as a hobby. Then I had 25 acres that's actually not far from this winery and decided that planting a vineyard was what I needed to do to keep myself busy outside of work.

[00:07:19] Not to be easy? Yeah, yeah, no piece of cake. I wound up planting about seven acres in total and then really did enjoy it.

[00:07:30] There must be something wrong with me, but I did enjoy it and was kind of in the process of trying to figure out how to work myself out of the construction industry into vineyard and wine.

[00:07:44] And I did some vineyard installs for some other folks, just private vineyards and did some other vineyard management.

[00:07:53] And when Dukeman was being built in 2005, had a mutual friend who was actually a winemaker in Paso Robles that used to be a winemaker in Texas, Don Brady came into town.

[00:08:07] And he really needed to go meet this Mark Pinnett. Good friend of mine, he's the winemaker over there at Dukeman. Then Don came back in town. Did you go meet Mark? No, not yet. He says, you really need to.

[00:08:22] And I think it was about the third time Don was kind of like, I'm not really asking you. I think I'm kind of telling you you really should go meet this guy. And I told you a question.

[00:08:31] It was kind of it. I think he was looking at my vineyard kind of going, you really should go meet this guy.

[00:08:36] And I did and when the first, I actually installed the second, it was hired as contractor to install the second half of the vineyard that's here on the property. And that was before you worked here actually?

[00:08:52] It was in February of 2006. And so a couple months later, Mark gave me a call back and said, hey, you need experience because I was planning to build my own winery. You need experience and I need help. He said, why don't you can work a harvest?

[00:09:09] And I said, that sounds like a great opportunity. And so I did in about three weeks into that, I went in his office and said, you know, kind of digging this. I think I'd like to full time position here and stay here.

[00:09:23] And he said, yeah, I would love to, but you're really not in the budget for about another two years. And, you know, that's kind of when we build in the assistant winemaker position. And I said, no, it's fair.

[00:09:34] And really, I just kept showing up every day and Mark used to say, I'm the guy, you know, Dave Riley, that's the guy that hired himself.

[00:09:43] You know, so that's about the, you know, the short version of it, but it was just kind of a being in the right place at the right time and having some, having a little bit of knowledge, I guess. And you started here as assistant and then moved up?

[00:09:58] I did. Or how did that work out? Yeah, started at the bottom, which is I think everybody should, you know, if you get into the wine business. Just grabbing those tanks.

[00:10:06] You should never ask somebody to do something in the winery that you haven't done before or you can't do yourself. So you get a little more cred that way. And so Mark, unfortunately in 2008, in early spring of 2008 was diagnosed with brain cancer.

[00:10:23] And so I took over at that point, but I guess not before getting an outstanding education from him. He was a great teacher and very, very knowledgeable. Well, tell me a little bit about this location's history. So you mentioned it started around 2005.

[00:10:41] So what's the story of Dukeman Family Winery? It was just, you know, kind of a dream of the Dukemans to have a winery and, you know, they just worked and kind of saw it all through.

[00:10:57] And I think, you know, it was just Dr. Dukeman and Lisa Dukeman, they both are huge wine enthusiasts. And so, you know, they have a love of wine.

[00:11:08] And so this was kind of their dream and, you know, kind of the only directive is, you know, to make food-friendly wines. That is kind of people ask, you know, how involved is Stahin with the winemaking?

[00:11:23] And they tell people I don't pretend to be a cardiologist and he doesn't pretend to be a winemaker and we get along great. But, you know, just kind of passion for wine.

[00:11:34] Yeah. And they started it in 2005 and then they built it. It's grown from then to where we are now. Sure. Yeah, it's the 2006 was the year that this building opened, you know, in summer of 2006.

[00:11:50] And we went from at that time I think we had, oh, it was like 12 or 24. I think there maybe were 24 barrels in the barrel room.

[00:12:00] And there was like about a thousand now. But I used to, I used to arrange them to make the room look, you know, attempt to make the room look more full.

[00:12:08] And then I'm trying to figure out how to arrange it where I can get it all in there. You can actually use this space. So it's very evident when you come here as well just in the way the decoration, I don't know if decorations are the right word,

[00:12:21] but just the way the winery is built, the way it looks, the construction, even down to the very wines that you're doing, there's a very Italian influence here. So tell me a little bit about that.

[00:12:31] Yeah, I think the Italian influence is kind of more just the architectural style. And as far as the Italian varietals that we've kind of become known for, that was more of an accident.

[00:12:48] Coincidence, I'll say it was very intentional. And I can't take credit for starting with Vermintino and Montable Chano and Allianco. That was Mark. And he kind of had that vision of, I really think these varietals do well in Texas.

[00:13:06] He'd been growing grapes on the high plains for 20-something years. And I got to give credit to the growers, like Bingham's and Oswald's who took a chance basically.

[00:13:19] Oswald probably had or has one of the largest Allianco plantings in Texas for sure as far as I know and probably ranked in the United States. It was kind of obscure. Nobody's grown a lot of Allianco in Texas for sure.

[00:13:42] But yeah, I credit those guys because they took the chance and I think we found great success with those varietals in Texas.

[00:13:52] But our setting out initially was if it grows well in Texas and we can make a word-winning wine that stands up to its counterpart from anywhere in the world, whether it be Italy or Spain or France.

[00:14:10] But what we found success with largely was some of those Italian varietals. We also do a Vignier and sometimes a Temperneo, but not every year on those. And this is, I think I can understand where the name of the winery comes from, Dr. Stan Elisa Duke-Win.

[00:14:30] Makes sense. But the location itself, so what made them pick this particular location? We're just a little bit southwest of Austin and Driftwood. So what made them choose this location? I think just beautiful Hill Country setting and close enough to Austin to kind of pull from there.

[00:14:48] But we also get a lot of visitors from Houston and San Antonio and Dallas, but I think really there's just something magical about the Texas Hill Country. You can't argue that. Well, let's get into your wines and your fruit. So where do you source out of your fruit?

[00:15:03] You mentioned a couple of vineyards down in High Plains, but where all do you get your fruit? We're 100% High Plains at this point. And largely because of the varietals that we've found our success with.

[00:15:18] We've done a GSM over the years. I think our first one was in 2010 or something like that, maybe earlier. And if we were focused on that, I would probably source all three of those grapes from the Hill Country.

[00:15:35] I think that's in my opinion an appropriate, the Hill Country is an appropriate place for those varietals. Our flagship wines, you know, our Alianico and Vermintino found their home on the High Plains. And of course, Montable Chano, I definitely can't leave that one out.

[00:15:55] I love Alianico and if I could, I would just like if Stan came to me and said, we don't need to pay bills anymore, you know, we're just going to have fun. What do you want to do? I'd say let's just make Alianico.

[00:16:11] But man, we have such a following for our Montable Chano. We just have a huge fan base for it. And the Vermintino, I mean that just is like wildfire, man. That's just we sell more.

[00:16:28] Well, historically we've sold more Vermintino, I think double that of the next one in line. Yeah. So it's like huge. Well, it's been out for a little while. It has been and that's been heartbreaking. Has that been a weather based issue or what's caused the gap there?

[00:16:46] Yeah. In 2019, it was October 31st, the Halloween massacre, which I'm sure you're familiar with. 80 something, Vines hadn't gone dormant yet. You know, I think it was 80 something degrees that day and it got down to zero that night.

[00:17:03] And you know, Vines can handle zero if you get there in stages, you know, gradually, but it's that from high temp to that it just it was catastrophic loss. And some of the some of the varieties like Roussaint, like bounce stride back the next year.

[00:17:23] We had a very nice crop of Roussaint in 2020. Vignet took a little hiccup but was still performed. But Trebiano and Vermintino, they just got wiped out. And so the Binghams replanted and retrained and did what they needed to do to restore the vineyard.

[00:17:48] Meanwhile, the Oswalds had already planted. We were selling so much Vermintino that the acreage I had contracted with Bingham was we were seeing wasn't enough. Okay. Kind of going forward.

[00:18:01] And so the Oswalds contacted me and said, is there anything you know, we're going to we're setting up to plant six more acres. Is there anything you want? Is it Vermintino please? You know, and so they did.

[00:18:13] And so that came online at the same time Binghams came back. So we actually it was like this we had this gap and then just hit right back where we were before it ever happened. And so fortunately, people haven't forgotten about it.

[00:18:29] So like sales are outstanding on the Vermintino. You always worry when you have something that a product wine that's that successful that it's so talked about and written about and people really love it.

[00:18:44] And then you give it this like, you know, three, four year gap where it's it's gone and then it comes back. And I think it's as good as it's ever been. And but there's still that thought we're like, you know, are people going to misremember this?

[00:19:01] So they're going to be like, oh, the Vermintino is so great. And then they taste it and they're like, I mean, could it ever be as good as the memory? You know, but I the feedback now is people are liking it better than ever.

[00:19:13] And so I'm just thrilled. I'm thrilled. What other industry can you have one singular event that can have a three to four year impact on something like that? You know, you hear about the high tech industry with an earthquake that destroys some factories or something,

[00:19:26] but then they source elsewhere. They get things back and running, you know, but with wine. No, that's it is. It's a long game. I mean, there's really no other way to describe it.

[00:19:35] And, you know, I'd been asked years ago, why, you know, why did you get into wine? It's like other than the fact that I like it, that, you know, having a construction company, everything's go, go, go. You can't nothing can be done fast enough.

[00:19:48] And you play it to vineyard and you're at mother nature's pace on now. And I mean, it's you can't you can't speed that process up. And then that goes into the winery as well. You know, you can't speed that process up.

[00:20:02] You know, Alianico we age we age our Alianico for four years in barrel and in a year in the bottle before we release it. And you can't speed that up. There's, you know, it just takes time.

[00:20:18] And so as much as it'd be great to get these wines out to market really quickly, you can't force it. Yeah, there is we also we also buy fruit from ready from ready vineyard out there as well.

[00:20:34] And we've been buying San Giovesi from him for many, many years. And that's, you know, I said we have a fan following for multiple Chano.

[00:20:44] There's a there's a pretty huge fan base for our San Giovesi, which is I place it somewhere between the color of a rose and the color of, you know, a medium bodied red wine. It's very light in color.

[00:21:00] I used to, you know, talk to Stan and every year and I just say I just can't I can't get color out of this San Giovesi no matter what we do. And he said well it's a delicious wine.

[00:21:11] You know, I said I don't know why I just like it to be you know, and I went once I came because I think when you look at our Alianaco and our multiple Chano and our Bermantino you can put those next to their Italian counterparts.

[00:21:23] And it's been done, you know, with different wine competitions and stuff that's really fun kind of the yes against them type.

[00:21:31] And I just said our San Giovesi will never be Brunillo, you know, and so Stan and I talked about like well, you know these other wines we're working with like we're really kind of we're in the same week and they can be on the same table.

[00:21:45] But the San Giovesi is different and I always feel myself just calling it Texas San Giovesi Texas San Giovesi because it's it's such a different product and and talked about this continuing and then you know kind of looked at sales on it.

[00:21:59] And I was like well if we have all these customers that want it why am I why would why would we take that away you know and so stuck with it and I've kind of learned to embrace it that that's it's a great summertime red wine you know so when it's 100 degrees outside and you're not in the mood for white San Giovesi is your wine.

[00:22:17] It's a Texi-Anti-classico. There you go. Well, that brings up a very interesting question then.

[00:22:24] And I was actually just taking the specialist of Texas Wine Course with Dr. Cain through Texas Wine School and it's one of the things we talked about in that course is Texas is very distinct in their wine industry and then it's somewhat of a bifurcated industry where you have most 80% or so of the grapes being grown in the high plains versus most of the wineries being situated in the Hill Country a good seven hours or so apart.

[00:22:49] So let's talk about processing of all that fruit. So what it's harvested, what does that look like for trying to get you process everything here? Do you do anything up there or what does that look like for processing?

[00:22:59] We do we process everything here and that's kind of gives us total control and I think Stan you know it kind of feels like this is our facility and I'm in charge of it and he wants to keep it that way.

[00:23:17] And give up you know stuff happens you know and I know those guys I know a lot of the guys that are doing processing out there and they're doing a great job. I think in Stan's mind is like if it ain't broke don't fix it.

[00:23:30] We're you know we're doing it here and he likes how we're doing it so we're going to keep doing it this way. You know we do it is an interesting situation where you know the vineyard is Texas is huge and the vineyards are pretty far away.

[00:23:48] But we you know the high plains is just a fantastic place to grow grapes. I mean really it doesn't get the recognition worldwide that it deserves and those guys the growers I'm working with there and have been for decades.

[00:24:06] Just do it they're doing a great job and and that you know the great thing about the Hill Country is we have tourism you know we have the beautiful scenery and so it's all very picturesque and it kind of works.

[00:24:19] I think he works well together you know and we have you know a trucking company that we depend on for for our refrigerated transport of the fruit.

[00:24:30] A lot of these guys harvest at night when it's cool goes into a refrigerated truck you know gets here in the morning and whenever whenever the truck hits the dock is when we fire it up. You get full call here we go we're on our way.

[00:24:44] That's it they they call from you know Fredericksburg or something like that and say you know see you about an hour and I said we'll be there with the lights on you know. So what are some of your favorite wines to make as a winemaker?

[00:24:58] I love I love making Alianaco and probably just because it's the kind of the taming of this beast.

[00:25:07] I mean it's very very very tannic which is the reason we age it so long is it takes that long to get that the integrated tannins you get in the structure you get when by the time it actually gets the market you know that four years and oak and the year in the bottle.

[00:25:26] I didn't have the appreciation I have for white wine when I started first first harvest making white wine changed everything I thought about white wine a I thought it was easier.

[00:25:43] It's not it's a it is very unforgiving and and also just there's something just so magical about the aromas of white wine strain fermentation. It's just intoxicating not literally that's after you smell it.

[00:26:06] But yeah, you know you can be tired you know and then everything and walk you know walk into the cellar and get that waft of white wine fermentation is just like OK now I remember why do this you know.

[00:26:22] Firminting muscat is is incredible but in the end you know just watching the opening the yo lid you've got your 3000 gallons of white wine fermenting and bubbling it you know it's like it looks like it's boiling but it's like 50 degrees.

[00:26:40] And then it's just rolling and foaming and it's just it's fantastic but I I love I love making Montable Chano and I love course love for Mantino forever will ever Mantino.

[00:26:55] I want to mention that a Leoneko so it's it's actually gotten some prestigious awards recently in San Francisco so that was at the 17 that won the double gold. Yes, I believe that's correct. And that's a pretty prestigious award. Yeah, yeah. In the heart of my country in America.

[00:27:10] Yeah, San Francisco International is a good one. I always I always like to show well there you know you doing well apparently with that. And you know I think in you know as long as as long as the customers like it you know it's that's number one.

[00:27:26] Awards only go so far people need to buy the wine. Right. Yes, you know there's a panel of judges can say it's fantastic. But if the you know if all the customers disagree, you know, you find out with a pocketbook. Yeah, right. It's a good one. Exactly.

[00:27:43] I've got a new a new project we're working on. Tell me about it. It's it's called barbecue. It's it's a barbecue great growers barbecue red barbecue white and barbecue rose and this kind of came about H e B is doing all things

[00:27:58] barbecue and so they want a barbecue wine.

[00:28:03] And so we we developed a new label for for these wines very very catchy label and those can be found in in you know any multiple stores but I think every H e B or nearly every H e B carries these wines doesn't say Dukeman on the front.

[00:28:22] It does it does say it really small letters on the on the back label that produced and bottled by but super fruit friendly wine don't let the name fool you those wines can be paired with anything the white especially is just a fantastic summer wine that wouldn't kind of I mean they're both just kind of

[00:28:41] just food friendly as as as you can get and so in blends of some sort of great. Definitely.

[00:28:49] So the the white is it it's you know pretty big blend of Rousseau and Vermintino and a little bit of Trebbiano and the red is San Giovese and Dolcetto and has a bit of Montalcano and that as well kind of both you know what I like to call wines with broad appeal it's it's really hard not to like them.

[00:29:15] You do make a single bridal Duccio or you just use that in the blend kind of like Timperneo only only in the best years so you know what I love about Montable Chano and Alianico is they are extremely consistent producers and so you know year over

[00:29:33] year it's like they're small you know there's going to be a little bit of variance in you know profiles but the kind of the foundation of those wines is really remarkably consistent and then you get the little differences year to year

[00:29:51] but Timperneo I found we can be like 2015. I think we I think we got a double goal that San Francisco with that 2015.

[00:30:03] I don't remember for sure but I know it was awarded pretty pretty high at a competition then 16 was good and then 17 I didn't do a varietal that year just you know kind of like if it kind of doesn't if it doesn't meet the mark for for that or in the same with Dolcetto we did get a double

[00:30:25] goal with our Del Chetto in 2008 at San Francisco and and I've only made a handful of varietal Del Chetto is following that is just kind of like if you set the bar that high and then that's kind of you know I guess I don't want to disappoint.

[00:30:45] Well they become limited edition releases as well yeah yeah and it's you know kind of without the well the last one was really good and this one isn't you know it's good but it's not you know I kind of

[00:30:54] try to try to keep the if you liked our you know 2015 or 2016 Timperneo well then you're going to like the next one I do but you know kind of keep it kind of keep my customers expectation you know because there's a lot of expectation about wine

[00:31:13] you know when you if you had you know Dukeman Montevil Chano like three years ago and you really really liked it you're going to expect to really like the current release and so I don't like to disappoint.

[00:31:25] But you also have to you understand the vintage variation too and that they're not always going to you're not making wine to taste exactly the same year to year but seeing what the fruit does year to year can be a little different somebody once said that wine is like a photograph and a bottle of that particular

[00:31:40] time you know right and so there's a but I see what you're saying about that with a variation on the don't shadow and some of those to only make sure you got the top quality when you get that yeah and and you know again it's kind of what what I really enjoy about

[00:31:54] Alianaco and and multiple Chano is just the the you know the consistent you know the the fruit it comes in very very similar vintage after vintage no matter what happens you know and so it's you know obviously there are going to be there are differences

[00:32:13] but I think again about the expectation where it's like yes the 19 reminds me of the 18 you know it's like they're different but I know what they are and they're playing the same game you know.

[00:32:26] Are there any varietals that you have not yet worked with that you would love to get your hands on and actually make some wine with.

[00:32:34] That's that's interesting because you know we are kind of early on had this thought process that it's like OK we're going to identify what we do well in what what our customers agree with that we do well and we're going to stick with that.

[00:32:53] We're not going to do the you know 80 different skew thing we're going to we're going to do you know focus on a handful of varietals and really hone in and really just see how great we can be with those varietals.

[00:33:08] That said I've worked with neurodavilla in the past and we made some really interesting fantastic wines. I would I think I would I would venture to work with neurodavilla in the future but I'm not I'm not like I'm not hunting it down I guess at this point.

[00:33:31] But I can't think of I can't think of anything else. I'm kind of really enjoying what we're working with and and you know I knew there are other wineries that work with other varietals and men some of them are just doing a fantastic job with those varietals.

[00:33:49] And I say you do you you're doing a great job. I don't need to make that because you're doing it so well you know and you know I think that's play Tari pretty full.

[00:33:59] Yeah. Yeah I mean yeah but and you know the the fun thing is is if every winery in Texas was doing the same thing it really wouldn't be then it's just a different change in venue kind of and you know kind of differences in quality along the way.

[00:34:16] But I think you know what's what's fascinating about the Texas wine is you know they're tiny little boutique wineries that you're producing a thousand cases are left or less or you know a couple thousand to much much larger wineries and this one producing you 50 or 100 or more.

[00:34:37] Well along that very line then so what are some of you have you found to be some of your most popular wines are the customers you mentioned Monopulchiano a while ago customers are like that but what are the ones that you're

[00:34:46] producing you just me and I can't keep enough of this in stock. Believe it or not that a wine it's an off dry red that we call Canto Filipe means happy song in Italian.

[00:34:58] And it's typically San Giovese Dolce d'Oblende very light and and and really I won't call it sweet it's it's kind of sweet wine for people who don't like sweet wine.

[00:35:12] It's the one where you know you can be in a tasting and somebody will say oh no I don't care for sweet wine.

[00:35:17] You said give this a try you know and oh wow that's delicious you know so it's it just it hits this mark of it's it's no it's it's just off dry and so if you're having like spicy food or something like that and just goes fantastic with that.

[00:35:35] So Canto Filipe is one that surprises me I mean it still surprises me and like man people love this wine and I can handle a glass of it but I couldn't do like you know it gets a little bit too much after that

[00:35:49] but yeah that's that's one that I think is very popular that that I wouldn't you know kind of I wouldn't have thought we would sell as much of it as we do.

[00:35:59] Gotcha well this is a very beautiful winery so in addition to the wines just these incredible facilities that you have here I think I saw a stat recently that said HGTV had actually voted Dubin Family Winery is one of the 20 most picturesque wineries in

[00:36:14] America which is a pretty big distinction it is gorgeous when you come with a live oaks you do a lot of events and activities and things here so what types of stuff do you typically have host here at the winery.

[00:36:25] We do if people do all kinds of things here we have I think close to 5000 square foot event space indoor with with the catering kitchen.

[00:36:36] We have weddings corporate functions all kinds of stuff and of course you know an outdoor wedding in the venue as well where we have during kind of in the season there'll be a wedding out here almost every weekend you know which is I think that's fun you know it's

[00:37:00] obviously a memory you know that the people have forever you know kind of getting in attaching that kind of to the winery is a neat deal. And then you do like I guess wine club do you have a wine club here. We do we have wine club.

[00:37:16] I think you know people hear wine club and it's like oh I'm gonna have to pay you know all this money for one club.

[00:37:23] This one structured a bit differently it's like basically you just sign up to get wine shipped to you quarterly at a discount when you come in I think you get a free glass of wine when you come visit.

[00:37:37] Yeah we do a pickup party and our chef will you know cook something you know for people to eat and stuff like that it is you know just kind of a big the big party you know we can be shipped to you or you can opt to come and pick it up and you know enjoy some food in the oak trees and the lawn and everything like that.

[00:37:56] Is that something they can sign up for online or do they do it here in person or how do they become a member. I think you can sign up online and if not it would be a great reason to come out to the tasting room and sign up.

[00:38:08] And there's live music here sometimes I've seen the signs for that and outside even outdoors live music.

[00:38:14] Yep yep we do and it is you know for your your listeners that haven't been here I mean there's just a fantastic front yard with huge oak trees and a lot of shade and picnic tables and a grass lawn and stuff like that.

[00:38:28] So you know people have you know kids running around and you know families are having fun and stuff like that. So it's really kind of a great environment for the whole family.

[00:38:39] So let's say a listener is now getting excited they're thinking man I really want to come check out Duke with Ellie Wainery.

[00:38:45] What does a typical tasting look like so how many wines do they typically get if you know that what wines do you have any reds whites dry sweets and the cost on that.

[00:38:56] I think you can you can kind of you know set your own because we do make you know several wines different you know red white and rose and as I mentioned we have two off dry options on both red and white.

[00:39:12] And so you can the tasting can be kind of geared towards the towards the customer and say you know I don't really care for like bigger reds I would like to start and you know kind of somewhere down in the medium body to lighter and maybe a white wine or two.

[00:39:25] And then you kind of get it get it structured that way kind of finding out the palette of the person that you're tasting.

[00:39:32] And we have a great tasting room staff and most of these guys that are up there guys and girls that are up there have been here a long time they're not.

[00:39:41] We don't have a huge turnover up front you know it's really you know it's a gorgeous place to work in a great environment and you know when 99.9% of the time you're dealing with people having a great time you know.

[00:39:53] And I think from my memory it's I think it's $20 for six different wines that you get to taste so and you got great some of you are going to share like you say very knowledgeable. What are your operating hours. We open at noon at seven days a week.

[00:40:08] I think we're open till six on Sunday and then seven like at the beginning half of the week and then I think eight kind of through the weekend. But I know our hours are online. And then go to the website to confirm all that before they come.

[00:40:25] And then are you family friendly, kid friendly pet pet friendly. Yes, dogs on a leash and kids on a leash. No teasing. Yeah but yeah no family friendly and pet friendly as well on leash for sure.

[00:40:43] Food options do they have any kind of food options when they come. Kitchen's open Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday and got a great chef that you know can serve up anything from pizzas to charcuterie and things like that.

[00:40:58] Do they need reservations to come to do a tasting or can they just walk it. You can walk in reservations don't hurt anything so you know it's that be that would be your call.

[00:41:09] And in my personal experience here at Dewman I would say they're a lovely beautiful spring day. Definitely try to get reservations because it can fill up your fast. I've been here and it's just packed where the lawn is just full of people.

[00:41:21] I would recommend you know come whenever you would like to come but never hurts. I would stick to weekdays if you don't like crowds and maybe a Sunday or something like that. Do you have any maximum group sizes if people want to come in a group.

[00:41:36] We don't I think if you have a large group I definitely encourage reservation let us let us know you're coming. And you just kind of mentioned it but what are your busier and slower seasons. What's the best time to come visit.

[00:41:50] It's pretty slow across the board in January February just because it's slow for pretty much everything people are just coming off Christmas

[00:42:01] and then things really kind of ramp up and you know kind of March through the summer and then you know the taper back off towards you know the end of the year but

[00:42:12] you know definitely we're definitely have a pretty good busy season and especially with the outdoor space we have you know when we have beautiful weather people want to get out.

[00:42:25] Let's say now that somebody is getting really excited they want to come visit but for whatever reason they can't get here. Do you do any kind of distribution you sell your wines online or there are ways for people to taste Dukeman family wine without necessarily coming directly here.

[00:42:39] Yes absolutely we're distributed throughout the state of Texas and can be ordered online out of state so long as you're in a reciprocal state

[00:42:51] and I don't have that list and you know what I would encourage your listeners to do is you know to find out as they can go to our website and attempt to order

[00:43:03] but if you're in a state that it's allowed to we're allowed to ship to you can order it from anywhere. And then like I said as far as distribution goes I would say if you don't find us at your favorite wine shop ask because they can get it.

[00:43:20] Yes. So do you have plans for future growth here at Dukeman family winery. We so we're we can do 20,000 cases annually. We're at about 15 right now and of course it's Texas so that that number bounces we've done as much as 25,000 and in 2013.

[00:43:46] We did very very little as did everybody else in the state. But I think that you know around that 15 to 17,000 case mark is really where we want to stay.

[00:43:59] I'm very involved in the winemaking process and I think getting you know outside getting north of 20,000 cases becomes difficult to pay as much attention as what I pay attention to for the 15 to 17,000 cases.

[00:44:19] And so I think we're you know our growing outside of that would probably be maybe our barbecue red and barbecue white program would bump us up into that higher closer to 20 but that kind of a different product line in that regard.

[00:44:39] So but that's kind of our you know as far as growth goes it's probably on that product. Well with all the places that people could go what in your opinion is the number one reason why people should say I got to go check out Dukeman family winery.

[00:44:53] I think we have just a stunningly beautiful facility inside and out.

[00:45:00] The worst setup where you know everybody that comes in is free to walk down the hall and you can actually look through the glass into the production facility into the barrel room, the white wine fermentation, red wine fermentation.

[00:45:14] We have our own bottling line here not all wineries have their own line and but you can you can see that as well.

[00:45:23] I think our the quality of our wines and things speak for themselves we've got great wines here and also you know just the outdoor space and you know big oak trees, beautiful green grass picnic tables it's you can really spend an afternoon you know order some food from the kitchen and just

[00:45:45] hang out and enjoy yourself. You know it's but it's just a this is a great place. It truly is a great place.

[00:46:00] Everything from their amazing wines, their generous hospitality and the knowledge of their staff, as well as the gorgeous grounds where you're drinking these amazing wines will have you wanting to come back again and again and prepare to be transported to a truly

[00:46:16] Texan and Tuscan style location for you to enjoy your wines and when you go, you got to make sure you go to the back hallway and walk down that hallway because that's where they have these big picture windows into their production facilities.

[00:46:30] So you can see their barrel room you can see the production facility with all their tanks and everything. You can even see a window into their incredible bottling line that they actually have on site there at Dukeman family winery.

[00:46:41] So it's really cool to go back there and see the magic behind the making of these great wines back in that back hallway. Now as always before you go make sure and check out their website. It's www.dukemanwinery.com.

[00:46:55] There you're going to find some information about their history, their staff, you'll see their wines. You can even join your wine club right there on the website. The taste of your info and hours are right there on the website along with things like more photos of the winery.

[00:47:09] Information about their event calendar so you can see when things are coming up at the winery itself and more. Go check it out again. It's www.dukemanwinery.com.

[00:47:19] And don't forget when you go to see them make sure you tell them you heard about them on this podcast, Texas Undervine. All right now after I finished my incredible interview there with Dave,

[00:47:29] I was able to go out and spend some time doing a tasting with their very knowledgeable and friendly tasting room staff.

[00:47:36] Now I have to say before I went, I kind of had an idea in mind of what I thought I might want to get because I tasted their Alianico before and I love it.

[00:47:45] And so I had this inkling notion in my mind ahead of time that I was kind of biased towards that and that's what I was going to get for my wine library bottle before I even started the tasting.

[00:47:55] But I got to taste all of these amazing wines. I loved all of them. And you know what I was especially struck by their 2018 Montepulciano. So this is the Montepulciano that Dave talked about in the interview and yes it is amazingly good.

[00:48:11] It was incredibly balanced but it had both red and dark fruit flavors, but I had this kind of complexity that felt like it was just morphing and transforming in my mouth.

[00:48:21] The further it went on my palate as I continued to savor those flavors even after I had swallowed really cool wine. So of course had to put down and neglect my Alianico this time and go for that 2018 Montepulciano.

[00:48:34] This is a winner. You need to try this when you come. I can definitely see why this is a fan favorite and has its own little following there at Dewtman Family Winery.

[00:48:42] Now I could probably spend all afternoon just hanging out at this gorgeous winery tasting these amazing wines and enjoying. I love these Italian varietals personally but I'm going to have to move on because I have other great Texas wine destinations that I want to bring you information about.

[00:48:59] Now before I go, I'd like to ask one small favor. So the production costs of this podcast unfortunately aren't free. I'm at a point now where I do have some Patreon subscribers who are helping me cover the monthly costs to produce or to host the show specifically.

[00:49:16] But there are a lot of other costs involved and a lot of travel costs buying these bottles to share with you and all of that.

[00:49:22] And so I would love to get to a point financially with a podcast where I have enough Patreon supporters that I can provide the show for you. Instead of having to dig deep into my own pockets and self funding it.

[00:49:32] And that would give me more opportunities to travel to even more great locations throughout the state. I'm going to keep trying to do that but again, it's all self funded at the moment. So anything that you could do to provide would be a huge help.

[00:49:44] And if you decide to become a Patreon subscriber, if you go to my website www.texasundervine.com Go up to the top click the become a Patreon link and you will take go to my Patreon page.

[00:49:56] It's you're going to see there there's several different levels that you can subscribe to that all kind of have their own little benefits.

[00:50:02] So whether you could just feel like you want to give a couple of dollars a month or if you want to give a little more than that that's fine.

[00:50:07] Or even if you just want to do a one time donation, all of that really helps me take this a lot further. I love my Patreon subscribers. Thank you so much to those of you who are currently supporting the podcast.

[00:50:18] I couldn't do it without you truly and for those that are thinking about subscribing, give it a shot. It really does help me get this podcast before more people really get to see more great locations. We have over 500 wineries in this state.

[00:50:33] I still have so many places to go see and to bring to you and any support that you can provide really helps again. That's www.texasundervine.com and just go to the top of the page and click the become a patron link there.

[00:50:46] And if you can't afford to give anything, you can at least give me a rating review that's free. That really helps. And if you're watching this on YouTube, make sure you click the like and subscribe buttons and leave a comment below.

[00:50:57] If you've never been to Dukeman tell me and listeners what are the things you're most looking forward to when you go? Or if you have been what's your favorite thing about Dukeman family winery we want to know. And with that my time is up.

[00:51:09] So don't forget subscribe to my socials and follow the podcast so that you'll know anytime a brand new episode is released. And until then happy trails and bottoms up y'all. Thanks for listening to Texas Under Vine.

[00:51:27] We strive to provide you with the best information about wine businesses all over Texas. Be sure to check out our website at texasundervine.com and follow us on our socials at Texas under Vine to stay up on all the upcoming episodes.

[00:51:41] Please email us with any suggestions or feedback. Also contact us if you're interested in donating sponsoring or advertising on the podcast just to help us cover our expenses and bring even more great info to you in future episodes. Above all travel safely and most especially drink responsibly.

[00:52:02] Howdy Vine Trippers. Did you know that I now have a merchandise store for Texas Under Vine?

[00:52:13] I only have a handful of limited items but you can go check those out and where your Texas Under Vine swag if you'd like to tell all your friends about the great wine locations we have here in Texas and maybe get them interested in the podcast as well.

[00:52:25] So there are things like t-shirts, there's a hoodie, there's a beady, a ball cap, things like that. But one of the most exciting things I have right now is my limited time offer t-shirt. That's my season one t-shirt.

[00:52:37] So this is your tasting through Texas, Texas Under Vine season one t-shirt. It's only going to be available for a little short amount of time. On the back it has all the different locations like a band tour t-shirt.

[00:52:48] So this is a limited time item and you can go out and get it now. And one of the great things about that t-shirt is a portion of every sale goes to support the Texas Hill Country Winery Scholarship Fund.

[00:52:59] So you can know that by buying that t-shirt you're also investing in the growing and flourishing of an amazing wine industry here in Texas and all of those people that are going to come and make it even better. Check out that merchandise store.

[00:53:12] It's on my website at TexasUnderVine.com. Just go up to the top. You'll see the link for the merchandise store.